Edgar Wright & J.J. Abrams Joining Forces For ‘Collider’

Paramount is recruiting three of the busiest “genre specialists” working in showbiz for a sci-fi project titled Collider. Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim) is directing based on a script he’s co-writing with Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend), and J.J. Abrams is producing.

Wright made a splash at Marvel’s Comic-Con 2012 panel, where he premiered test footage for his gestating Ant-Man movie. The comic book superhero property has been in Wright’s hands for some five years now (he’s jokingly referred to it as the Terrence Malick approach), and news that the filmmaker has yet another project soaking up his attention is discouraging for Hank Pym fans.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are re-teaming with their fellow geek Englishman for a finale to their “Blood & Ice Cream” trilogy this fall, a project titled The World’s End. Abrams is also juggling multiple projects at once (is he ever not?), even while hunkered down in the editing process on his (still, untitled) Star Trek sequel.

Mavel’s Louis D’Esposito is hinting that Ant-Man could arrive in 2014, joining Captain America: The Winter Solider and Guardians of the Galaxy. The expectation is that Ant-Man‘s tricky visual effects issues (namely, perfecting the character’s shrinking abilities) will be worked out while Wright shoots/edits World’s End, so he can jump right into production on the Marvel flick thereafter. That leaves Collider on Wright’s to-do list after he completes the aforementioned films, along with a reboot of the Night Stalker franchise.

Johnny Depp is moving on to Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel, confirming that his collaboration with Wright on Night Stalker has been moved to the back of the line (along with Collider).

Wright is co-producing Collider with his Big Talk Productions partner Nira Park and Abrams through his Bad Robot banner. Plot details for Collider are being kept firmly under warps, as is customary for both BR projects helmed by Abrams (Super 8, Star Trek 2) and developing titles alike (Zanbato).

It stands to reason that Protosevich has dibs on the initial script draft for Collider, given his availability (and Wright’s lack thereof). The writer/producer worked on the screen story for Thor and devised the screenplay for Spike Lee’s coalescing Old Boy. He was also instrumental in the development process for Jurassic Park 4 (currently in the scripting process, with a 2014 release in mind).

We’ll keep you updated on all upcoming Edgar Wright projects (including Collider and Ant-Man) as more information comes our way.